Sketches of Iran: Putting a Human Face to Human Rights Crisis in Iran

In spite of international hype about Iran, the country’s real stories remain underreported. When it comes to struggles against human rights, for instance, we only hear about the noble work of Iranian activists, lawyers, journalists when they are imprisoned, on hunger strike, exiled or seen in mass protests such as the Green Movement of 2009. But this is not the entire story.

Sketches of Iran: A Glimpse from the Front Lines of Human Rights, edited by Omid Memarian at the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) based in New York, is a collection of cartoons and commentaries about human rights in Iran. It includes personal stories by forty remarkable individuals. Among the contributors are stories from the four-year-old son of imprisoned lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh; the daughter of Christian pastor Hossein Soodmand, who was executed for converting to Christianity; the daughter of the leader of Green Movement, Mir Hosein Mosavi, who remains under house arrest; the father of Saneh Jaleh, a Kurdish student who was killed at a demonstration; the Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi; renowned human rights lawyer Mehrangiz Kar and others. The stories are complemented with editorial cartoons such as a portrait featuring twelve political prisoners in Iran.

Omid Memarian spoke with Azadeh Pourzand of Foreign Policy Association about the rationale behind the ICHRI’s publication of Sketches of Iran. Addressing the diverse nature of the stories and cartoons, Mr. Memarian said, “We really wanted to put real human faces and voices to the much discussed human rights situation in Iran.” He added, “Sketches of Iran is a way for us to convey to the world what the people of Iran are facing in their ordinary lives. The human rights crisis in Iran is not only headline news. This crisis impacts real lives in real ways!” A former prisoner of conscious in Iran himself, Mr. Memarian emphasized, “As evident in the stories and cartoons included in this book, we can only forgive, but we cannot forget.” Memarian hopes that by reading Sketches of Iran, the world understands the depth and the impact human rights violations have on many lives.

In order for this book to receive the much deserved attention, it has to be published both in soft and hard copies and widely circulated. Even though ICHRI has paid for the collection, preparation, editing and layout of Sketches of Iran, the cost of publishing goes far beyond the financial capacity of the organization. To publish the book in large numbers with affordable pricing for buyers, ICHRI has prepared a teaser shared with the public through a cloud sourcing venue (Kickstarter) and launched a grassroots fundraising campaign. So far, ICHRI has succeeded in raising over half of the total cost with ten days to go until the Kickstarter campaign comes to a closure.

Taking an innovative approach to fundraising through cloud sourcing, Mr. Memrian and his colleagues at the ICHRI hope to raise both awareness about the human rights situation in Iran and obtain sufficient funding for the publication of the book via the Kickstarter campaign. “The voices gathered in Sketches of Iran ought to be heard by the world and this is only possible if we can widely circulate this book and make it available for purchase with affordable prices,” Mr. Memarian concludes.

To see a brief description of the content of Sketches of Iran click here.